"If that claim is ever justified, you will have to choose another leader," Mowbray remarked. "This settlement was not founded with the object of making money. Now, Broadwood!"
Broadwood rose with a smile.
"We must all agree, sir, that there's not much danger of the object you mention being realized. No doubt, there are some to whom this doesn't matter, but the rest are confronted with the necessity for making a living, and I suspect that one or two have the trouble I've experienced in paying my storekeepers' bills."
"Don't be personal!" some one called out.
"That strikes me as foolish," Broadwood retorted. "One can't help being personal. We all know one another; we use one another's horses and borrow one another's cash; and it's the necessity for doing the latter that I wish to obviate. We all know our neighbors' needs, and I want to show you how they can be supplied."
He had struck the right note with his easy humor; but Harding saw that Mowbray was not pleased.
"You don't need much," one cried amid laughter. "You got a bumper harvest, and cut down your subscription to the hounds."
Broadwood smiled.
"I came out of the rut and worked. A rash experiment, perhaps, but it didn't prove so harrowing as I feared; and there's some satisfaction in having no debts. But my point is that you can't do much without proper implements, and I feel that we'll have to get them. The proposal I've the pleasure of seconding, shows you how."
He sat down, and Mowbray looked up with a sarcastic smile.